ANALYSIS Development Approaches in Latin America: Towards Social-Ecological Transformation J. Álvaro Cálix R. F ebruary 2017 n Some of the theories that have attempted to explain social change in Latin America have paved the way to development approaches and models that became hegemonic during the twentieth century and continue to be so in the twenty-first century. The influence of economic theories led to the concepts of accumulation pattern and development model to be considered equivalent. The notion of development model is therefore used to refer to each modality adopted by the process of capital reproduction in a given historical moment. This bias led to each model having serious limitations to address the multiplicity of dimensions inherent in a comprehensive understanding of development. n Since the second half of the nineteenth century, the Primary Export Model, the Import Substitution Industrialisation Model, the Neoliberal Model, and the so-called Post-Neoliberal Approach have been the development approaches or models prevailing in Latin America. In spite of important differences, to a larger or lesser extent they have characteristics in common: a) they view modernisation as a linear and evolutionary process based on growth as its primary factor; b) they subordinate and deny the intrinsic value of the nature of the relationship between human beings and the environment; and c) they exclude any knowledge departing from the parameters of the ruling Western rationality. n To oppose the neoliberal model per se does not imply that the capitalist system is being challenged in depth. Changes in the correlation of forces and in the State’s redistribution function have not changed the region’s profile as a supplier of raw materials and cheap labour for the global economy. Beyond the positive intentions and effects of post-neoliberal redistribution policies, Latin America undoubtedly continues to play a relevant role in the functioning of global capitalism. n In the Latin American region, the effects of the development models have potentiated a crisis in the management of social change with serious consequences for quality of life and nature’s metabolic rhythms. The crisis, however, is also an opportunity for shifting the direction of these approaches. Evidence reveals that in Latin America doing more of the same would only make the situation worse. The current situation demands that social actors articulate and play a role as bearers of change and innovation ideas. Within the context of the field of ideas, the definition of a social-ecological transformation horizon becomes a challenge of the first order. A